Here is yet another selection of small, hard to get witnessed falls from an old research collection. I got these right before leaving for the Denver show and did not have time to process them until I got back. I have also added a few tiny little scraps I got at the show.

ATARRA, India: (L4), black. Fell December 23, 1920. Tkw = 1.28 kilograms.
I think I had a few much smaller crumbs of this some months ago (they would have been from the same source). This is a small part slice that has black crust along one edge. The interior is fresh and and shows metal and chondrules quite clearly.
.48 gram part slice – 7mm x 5mm x 5mm - $100 -SOLD

HOLBROOK, Arizona: (L/LL6): Fell July 19, 1912.
This is a somewhat weathered fragment from a research collection. It appears that a substantial portion of the piece was used up in what ever work was being done on it as the label indicates that it originally weighed around 9.8 grams. The label also indicates that this piece was found November 8th, 1968. Nothing special, but interesting in its history.
2.6 gram fragment – 14mm x 11mm x 10mm - $40

MERUA, India: (H5). Fell February 2, 1945. Tkw = 71.4 kilograms.
This is a bottle that contains three fragments (two around 4mm x 3mm and one closer to 7mm x 4mm) and some dust. I recall, from an earlier offering of a few pieces of this meteorite, that all but a tiny hand full of this meteorite is tied up in museum collections.
1.2 grams fragments and dust in bottle - $100

NEWPORT, Arkansas: (Pallasite). Found 1923. Tkw = 5.6 kilograms.
This is a small cut fragment that is mostly metal but shows some bits of olivine (this was an old research collection piece and I suspect the “work” was done on the olivine from this piece). Regardless, this is a very difficult to find meteorite. I suspect that many (most?) pallasite collectors have not gotten a piece of this name yet.
.36 gram cut fragment – 10mm x 5mm x 4mm - $100 -SOLD

OURIQUE, Portugal: (H4). Fell December 28, 1998. Tkw = 20+ kilograms.
I don’t think I ever have had any of this. I know the few pieces that made into collector’s hands were quite high priced. Unfortunately, this is just a few small fragments (probably equivalent to around 3mm x 3mm x1mm or so) in a capsule. Nothing special, but a cheap way to add a “new” fall to a collection.
Small fragments in capsule - $10

PEACE RIVER, Canada: (L6). Fell March 31, 1963. Tkw = 45.76 kilograms.
These are all fragments with out crust, unfortunately. BUT then these are the only pieces I have had of this
meteorite in any form for many years. I think the piece that was in the “micro” collection I out together years ago was also a no crust fragment like these. Crust or not, this is hard material to come by.
1.0 gram fragment – 10mm x 9mm x 7mm - $30 -SOLD
1.4 gram fragment – 12mm x 11mm x 6mm - $42 -SOLD
4.8 gram fragment – 16mm x 16mm x 8mm - $140 -SOLD

ST. MICHEL, Finland: (L6). Fell July 12, 1910. Tkw = 16.452 kilograms.
This is a wedge part slice that I received just before going to Denver for the show. This has one natural edge (no crust, unfortunately). The interior though shows a really nice breccia texture with lighter mottled
tan and gray clasts in a dark gray matrix. Looks nice fo an old chopped up research specimen.
13.5 gram part slice – 40mm x 20mm x 5mm - $270 -SOLD

SHALKA, India: (Diogenite). Fell November 30, 1850.
Here is a small crumb (around 2mm x 1mm x 1mm) in a capsule in a box with a M Blood Meteorites label.
Crumb in capsule - $10

VACA MUERTA, Chile: (mesosiderite). Found 1861.
This is a small part slice that had a label (that says Vaca Muerta, 9.5 grams, Me1300) taped to it (well, now with it as the tape has torn free). The natural edge of the piece has all kinds of numbers marked/ painted on it. I can make out 255, 215. And Me 1300. I have no clue, unfortunately, what these numbers are or what old collections they might represent.
9.6 gram part slice with old numbers – 20mmx 15mm x 11mm - $50-SOLD

VIGARANO, Italy: Carbonaceous (CV3.3). Fell June 22, 1910.
Here is a sample of the meteorites that give the CVs the V in their type name. This is bottle (with an old label) that contains one large fragment a couple smaller and a bit of dust.
.36 grams of fragments and dust in bottle - $50 -SOLD

Monday, 1 September 2014

Dear Collectors,
Happy Labor Day to those of us that get a holiday to celebrate working by taking the day to goof off!

This is not an offering (too little time before I leave town) but a couple announcements.
DENVER SHOW: September 7th-14th. Ramada Plaza (4849 Bannock St.), room 224.

I'll be out of town September 5th through the 16th. I will try to check e-mail from time to time, but don't expect much action (it is rare that I have a good enough connection and rarer still when I have the time). You can try calling the hotel phone number (303) 292-9500, room 224 during the show days, which might be best if possible for you.

Thanks to the “Colleseum” show opening ever earlier, our show has now been extended to several days earlier as well. It had been optional to show up “early” (the official opening day had been Wednesday which would have been the 10th this year) but it was not required. It now seems that we are required to be open sometime on Sunday the 7th. Not pleasant for me. More days and likely no more sales to make up for it (Denver is big but not a REALLY BIG show and it does bring people, but not LOTS of people from all over the world like Tucson does). I did show up “early” last year (I think I actually did opened on Sunday afternoon) and overall sales certainly did not cover the higher motel expenses for the extra days (well, there was lots of flooding that didn’t help matters any). Anyway, I plan to be open on Sunday the 7th but it will likely be mid-day (noon or so) before I can kick the door open. It seems that the rooms have been completely re-modeled. This has always been a fear of mine as I open the door for the first time each year. I have learned over the past 25 plus years how to set up around and use the furniture that has been in this room all these years. Now they have removed some things I used (“desk” table and chairs) and have added a HUGE (9 feet long, several hundred pound) TV stand and “desk” unit. I heard several people broke this monstrosity in attempting to move it (and incurred high “damage” charges because of it) during the April spring show. So, my usual, know how to work with the furniture set-up was usually 9 or 10 hours. Now that I have to re-learn how to jig-saw into the room (I am having to bring and borrow many different tables of different sizes as I am not sure what will end up fitting any more) it will likely take MUCH longer this year. However, once I am set up, I do plan my usual schedule: open at 10AM and open until around 10pm. The 10PM closing my end up being earlier some nights if there is very little foot traffic (no people visiting, other rooms near by all closed) as there are some extra (and odd) potential security issues/ threats I need to be concerned about these days. If that is the case some night you show up late (but before 10 – I do need to get some sleep), just knock and we’ll let you in/ open the door. The only night I know I will be closing “early” is Friday the 12th for the COMETS party and auction. I’ll be open until 6pm that night (or a bit longer if I still have customers) – which I think is the usual scheduled show closing time.

NEW METEORITE:
At the show I will have on display Colorado’s newest (and possible the US’s newest) recognized meteorite! And even better yet, it is NOT a desert or dry lake bed find. AND it is NOT a cracked old weathered chondrite. It turns out that a REAL meteorite has indeed been found in the Montrose area (well, relatively close anyway). And it turns out that the thing is a Ureilite (this has not been probed yet, but the texture, XRF chemistry and the presence of amazing bright metallic blue gray graphite grains in the thing shows that it can’t be anything but a Ureilite). It was found by a guy rock-hounding on a friends property about 11 miles south of the city of Gunnison (the naming of this is going to be tricky. Gunnison and Blue Mesa, the names I would have liked to use are in Gunnison County but this was found a couple miles into Saguache County in a remote area with only a few creek names showing on the maps). He was looking for potential fossils in an out-cropping of shale. He noticed this black rock (yep, it is fresh enough to still show pretty much complete black crust) sitting on top of some rocks of this outcrop and took it home (this was 8 years ago). He ended up dropping it off at Mr. Detector in Montrose (the same store that Mr. Curry dropped off some of his “meteorites” with for my inspection 4 or 5 years ago). I looked at it about a month ago and had to bring it home to run on the XRF (it sure looked like a meteorite but then there are plenty of terrestrial rocks that can look like these things). After determining that I was around 95% certain it was a meteorite, I made an offer to buy it and asked that the owner bring in the end they had managed to cut off of it if they could still find it. That piece was unpolished and really showed the graphite that made it 100% clear that this was a meteorite. No word until a week ago. I assumed they were going to simply toss it in a bank safe-deposit box and make it a “family heirloom” once they found it was indeed likely a meteorite. Thankfully, the finder was really pleased and willing to sell his find (it was a substantial amount but NOT the millions of dollars the other supposed finder of “meteorites” in the area would think its worth). This, unfortunately, is not real big. It is only 216 grams. However, it is oriented. I’ll have this on display for those that want to see the US’s 4th Urelite and Colorado’s first. I am not really trying to sell any of it until it gets through full research and reporting, but I am certainly willing to make note of people who think they may want a piece once that is done. I am also thinking about taking this thing after the show to the folks at the Montrose Daily Press – the paper that did all the huge stories (and they were, unfortunately, just stories) about Curry and his “meteorites”. I am pretty certain they won’t publish anything about this (probably to embarrassing to have a news report on a REAL local meteorite after spending years reporting multiple times on ones that weren’t). But it would be nice to show them, personally, that the Curry accusations of conspiracy to lie about, hide new meteorites and keep them from the market was (and is) indeed complete BS.